Cloud Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) player GoGrid Tuesday pulled the curtain off of a new partner program through which the company said will give cloud providers the tools needed to beef up their cloud practices to grab a portion of the IaaS market, which is expected to hit $4 billion in four years.
The new program, dubbed the GoGrid Referral Program, is aimed at MSPs, consultants and infrastructure-focused partners looking to boost their cloud-based revenue streams and gives partners new tools and sales and marketing services to help drive cloud sales.
According to Jeff Samuels, GoGrid chief marketing officer, the GoGrid Referral Program gives partners one-on-one training sessions with GoGrid industry experts; co-branded marketing programs and materials; mentorship from solution architects and a consultative partnership.
"We structured this program they way we structure our customer engagements," Samuels said. "MSPs, VARs, consultants and brokers have been customers of ours for a while and we've paid attention to what they need to take their businesses to the cloud."
Through the new program, GoGrid partners can leverage GoGrid's knowledge and expertise to educate customers on deploying infrastructure in the cloud and winning new business. The program offers phone and online support staffed 24x7 and the GoGrid Referral Program offers go-to-market programs that can generate leads through co-branded webinars, white papers and joint case studies.
Education and training opportunities in the new program include a 101-level course through more advanced curricula designed to "enable partners to offer this to their customer base," Samuels said.
And for revenue opportunities, Samuels said that most partners will start with a 10 percent margin, which can easily be doubled based on the specific deal. There is also potential for higher-margin custom deployments, he added.
Samuels said one of the main goals of the program is to enable MSPs to retain control of their book of business and capitalize on the move to cloud infrastructure. Samuels added that GoGrid sees MSPs as playing an integral role in the move to the cloud.
"We tried to make this program as customizable as MSPs are diverse," he said.
